phew & unsympathetic asian

so, my blog has gone PUBLIC again! 

well, i figured that i should try to minimize the discrepancy between the public and private me. (not that my blog is terribly private anyway.) 

it might seem like a small gesture but i do feel better after a simple click on the "allow anyone to view" button. :)

on a different note, i wanted to relate my encounter with the most unsympathetic asian/person i've ever met. if you're cringing because i just pulled the asian label, hang in there - there's a reason for it. 

so, i flew from cville to dc (which is a silly idea itself) over the weekend. the outbound flight to dc was severely delayed and so, a few of the passengers (myself included) were put into a cab and sent away to the dulles airport (in dc). 

when i checked-in at dulles to head back to cville 2 days later, i realized that my return flight was cancelled because i apparently "missed the first leg of my flight". basically, the cville airport folks failed to update my status earlier. 

so, i approached the "QUICK FIX" counter, where the ticketing agent is supposed to FIX your problem. and there she was, the world's most unsympathetic asian ticketing agent i've ever, EVER met. i explained my situation nicely and ask if she could issue me a ticket to cville. she then interrogates me as to why i didn't take the outbound flight and demands DETAILS of the "severe delay" i mentioned. granted, i was in a rush and didn't press the cville airport folks for how long the "severe delay" but madam ticketing could have EASILY accessed information from her quick fix counter to check how long my previous flight delay was. 

so, i asked her if i could contact anyone for that information and she points her finger at me saying "YOU do that." 

at this point, i was going to throw my phone at her face. but God gained better control of me and i didn't. i called ayisha to get the contact number of the cville airport and they were CLOSED for the weekend. (see how we roll in cville?)

during this whole encounter, madam ticketing was just pacing back and forth relating how i didn't get information about my plane delay that resulted in them having to put me in a cab etc. to her other unsympathetic agent friends. putting me in an "inexperienced traveller light" was completely unnecessary and derogatory. again, i wanted to throw my phone at her. 

feeling very frustrated, i picked up the handset at the e-ticketing booth next to me and prayed for someone to save my situation. AND voila! a customer service person from the airline (probably outsourced to a kind soul in india) answered immediately. i related my predicament and he nicely told me that my previous flight was delayed to 4PM. yes, golden hour 4PM. 

i say thank you and tell madam ticketing, who had a slightly more helpful supervisor to work on my ticket. 

at this point, madam ticketing was ACTUALLY cordial when she spoke to me.

then it HIT ME, she just didn't want to take the responsibility of giving me my supposedly cancelled ticket for fear of who-knows-what. well, i guess the bad economic times would play up the unemployment factor should she get FIRED for issuing a paying customer her rightful ticket. but i wonder, would she have done this if i were white? i doubt so. so what about camaraderie - one minority helping out another minority perhaps? tough luck, honey!

i talked to 2 other friends and they all tell me similar stories of asian folks working at the airports and how they are hardly helpful because they are caught up with doing a "proper job". what i find absolutely ironic is this. how are you doing a "proper job" at the quick fix counter when you snowball a small matter into a drama? and NOT even try to fix something because you were so caught up with the rules. i had to defend the legitimacy of my customerness.

and it's true, bureaucracy is our asian blame-game. i think about how often i run into dead-ends when talking to malaysian/singaporean agencies (you're in for a treat if you deal with the government departments) because they try to do their job so well that they end up doing nothing. 

oh and in case you were wondering, avoid united airlines. or any american airline for that matter.